Christopher Serpell
Christopher Harold Serpell | |
---|---|
Born | Leeds, Yorkshire (West Riding), United Kingdom | 1 July 1910
Died | 3 June 1991 Barnes, London, UK | (aged 80)
Occupation | Journalist |
Known for | BBC's Rome and Washington Foreign Correspondent |
Notable work | From Our Own Correspondent |
Christopher Serpell (1 July 1910– 3 June 1991) was a journalist and BBC diplomatic correspondent.
Serpell was born in Leeds, England, in 1910.[1] His father was senior master of Leeds Grammar School.[1]
Serpell began his career as a reporter for the Yorkshire Post.[1] In the 1930s he began working for The Times in London.[1] With a fellow journalist, Douglas Brown,[2] he wrote the novel If Hitler Comes (first published in 1940 as Loss of Eden), which imagines a Britain that has ostensibly made peace with Germany but has in effect surrendered.[3]
During World War II, he served in naval intelligence under Ian Fleming.[1] He subsequently joined the BBC as its Rome correspondent, then Washington correspondent from 1953, and finally diplomatic correspondent, until retirement in 1975.
He appeared as a "castaway" on the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs on 31 March 1973.[4]
He died in 1991 at his home in Barnes, South London.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f "Christopher Serpell". Faber and Faber. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
- ^ "Brown, Douglas". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Retrieved 9 December 2016.
- ^ "If Hitler Comes". Faber & Faber. Retrieved 9 December 2016.
- ^ "Desert Island Discs - Castaway: Christopher Serpell". iPlayer Radio. BBC Online. Retrieved 14 August 2014.